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Reuters
July 19,
2003
Summary: The Supreme Court of the Fiji Islands ruled that the Prime
Minister must give proportional representation in his Cabinet to all
parties with more than 10 seats in the House of Representatives. This
means that the main opposition party, the Fiji Labour Party, will gain
seats in the cabinet. The Fiji Labour party has 27 of the 71 seats
in the House, the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) / United
Fiji Party has 32, the Matanitu Vanua (MV) / Conservative Alliance Party
has 6, and the rest of the seats are held by smaller parties.
At present the government is formed by a coalition of SDL and MV.
Reuters Wire
Fijian
verdict welcomed
July 19, 2003 LONDON. The Commonwealth Secretary-General,
Don Mckinnon, today described as "an important landmark" the ruling
of a five-member Bench of the Supreme Court of the Fiji Islands that
the Prime Minister must give proportional representation in his
Cabinet to all parties with more than 10 per cent of the seats in
the House of Representatives. Mr. McKinnon said in a statement: "The
decision signifies an important landmark in the political history of
the Fiji Islands. I welcome the leadership demonstradted by the
Prime Minister, Qarase, in his reaction to the Supreme Court ruling
on Friday and his statement in which he said that his task now is to
implement the decision taking into account the political questions
that the Constitution does not address." The Secretary-General
expressed the hope that Mr. Qarase and the former Prime Minister,
Mahendra Chaudhry, would maintain a dialogue in good faith through
their `Talanoa' process to map the way forward. The Supreme Court
ruled that under Section 99 of the Constitution the Prime Minister
must invite all the major parties to be represented in the Cabinet.
It left to the Prime Minister the selection of persons in
consultation with the leaders of the parties concerned. The
decision will lead to the refashioning of the government by
including up to eight ethnic Indian MPs from the Fiji Labour Party
led by Mr. Chaudhry in this racially-divided south Pacific nation.
The judgment was delivered amid tight security in the capital Suva
while public reaction to the development was being watched. The
`Talanoa' process was facilitated by the East West Centre in Hawaii
to promote a Pacific-Island style dialogue that would bring together
people with opposing views without any predetermined expectations of
an agreement. Under this process, Mr. Qarase, who is the leader of
the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) party and Mr.Chaudhry,
have held several rounds of discussions on issues critical to the
Fiji Islands. The developments in the islands were considered most
recently in May 2003 by the Commonwedalth Ministerial Action Group.
Political observers said the development left Mr. Qarase with three
options: offer the labour MPs minor posts, reshuffle the Cabinet to
allot to labour MPs senior posts, including those that concern the
ethnic affairs portfolio, or order snap elections. Mr. Qarase only
recently ruled out the third option. Australia and New Zealand,
Fiji's biggest trade partners which are Pacific neighbours, and aid
donors, have welcomed the court's decision. |
